Date of Award
9-2023
Access Control
Open Access
Degree Name
Art Conservation, M.A., C.A.S.
Department
Art Conservation Department
Advisor
Emily Hamilton
Department Home page
https://artconservation.buffalostate.edu/
First Reader
Jiuan Jiuan Chen
Second Reader
Rebecca Ploeger
Third Reader
Aaron Shugar
Fourth Reader
Theresa J. Smith
Abstract
The medicinal contents found within a mid-1800’s saddlebag were investigated using multimodal imaging techniques, micro-transmission Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (transFTIR), pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (pyGCMS), X- Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF), Raman Spectroscopy and the reference collection of the SUNY Buffalo State Eckert Herbarium. Housed within glass vials and paper packets, the medicinal samples from seventeen different containers were analyzed and their results compared with historical references. Medicines with probable identification were found to be of both mineral and botanical origins: mercurous chloride, lead acetate, magnesium carbonate, iron oxides, gum arabic, ground croton seeds, benzoin resin, Fabaceae senna and Arctostaphylos uva- ursi leaves, bark, and roots. Informed by the health and safety measures dictated by the identified contents a conservation treatment was completed and involved a modified imaging set-up, reassembly and filling the losses of a glass vial with Japanese paper reinforced with B-72, securing the contents of the paper packets using gampi, and constructing archival housing for all twenty of the individual objects.
Recommended Citation
Brundrett, L. J. 2022. 19th-Century Medical Saddlebag: An Analysis of the Contents and a Conservation Treatment. M.A. and M.S. thesis, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo.
